


The Truth

by gothamsoul (roughknuckles)



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Superman/Batman (Comics)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Confessions, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-29
Updated: 2010-08-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 11:37:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1386235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roughknuckles/pseuds/gothamsoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clark awkwardly answers Bruce's question in public.</p><p>[relevant story arcs: none]</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Truth

"Well?"  
   
Clark Kent was an honest man. It's not that he couldn't lie, it's just that he absolutely wouldn't. As much as he knew people lied day in and day out, doing so just felt so un-human to him. Kryptonians, as he understood them from his Father's history, were sly and even better at deceit than any human being could dream of. Kryptonians were capable of fooling any lie detector, anywhere in the universe, and they could do it while swearing on the life of their first born and Rao itself.  
   
It was for that reason that Clark found human honesty, as clumsy and painful as it could be, so endearing, and admirable. Of any race of beings Clark had ever encountered, humanity was most likely to go right ahead and flat out say that the big guy with the gun to it's head could really use a tic tac.  
   
"Clark?" Bruce asked from across the table.  
   
"Oh," Clark set the napkin he'd been examining rather closely down. These fancy, four-star places that Bruce favored in public made him feel like an odd duck sometimes. Sitting beside Bruce, he always had the feeling that everyone was staring at him. Really, they were only staring at Bruce, but it was an uncomfortable sensation all the same. "Yes? I'm sorry-" he adjusted the bulky frame of his glasses and looked through them at Bruce. The two of them had been reminiscing about first impressions while they waited for their entrées, and now Bruce was looking at him with that analytical, detective stare. "Ask me again."  
   
Bruce sighed as though trying to teach a particularly slow child. "I just asked you what you thought of me the first time we met, Clark."  
   
"Ah. That's what I thought you said." Clark looked out the window.  
   
"Clark." Bruce shifted forward in his seat a little, his tone darkening. "You can tell me."  
   
"It's ... just that you probably won't like it. Are those ours?" Clark looked after a tray of lunch that passed them by, but Bruce's attention didn't falter for a moment.  
   
"No. Not ours. Answer the question, Clark."  
   
Clark nodded and looked down at the table, moving his lips without very much sound coming out as he polished his glasses with the napkin, one hand trembling a little.  
   
Bruce sighed. "A little louder if you can manage it, Mr. Kent."  
   
Clark looked up, watching a muscle twitch in Bruce's jaw. Any second now that vein would start throbbing in his temple. "Maybe now isn't a good time."  
   
"No time like the present, Kent." And there was that vein. Bruce leaned over the table, his face all bat as he lowered his voice. "Whatever it was you thought of me, I'd rather know it right now than sit here and wonder exactly what sort of poor excuse for a mere mortal you think I am, Clark."  
   
Clark took a deep breath. It was possibly too deep as a passing waiter was suddenly pulled backwards by a mysterious change in the direction of the air around him and toppled over, crashing just beside their table with a brief, spectacular noise that turned every head in the restaurant just in time to hear the unvarnished truth.  
   
"I-" he forced himself too look up into Bruce's face and do what he promised he would always do, tell the truth. "I thought you were the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, actually."  
   
A stray plate spun on edge and then finally clattered on the floor.

**Author's Note:**

> co-authored.


End file.
